Technicolor and Vinyl Records

[moi621 (imported)]

I am not much into music but I have heard it said that vinyl records capture bass tones lost on tape and digital recordings.

I am definitely into Hollywood and notice with the current Ivanhoe movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Taylor and many others that the color and picture definition is so much better in the old "technicolor" movies then the digital of today.

Another misconception? Or misperception?

Is digital as good as they say?

Moi

[tugon (imported)]

As an audiophile I prefer records over digital. I like some of my old film picures of my travels better than some digital. I do think one day digital will catch up. Digital in all mediums is much more of a convenience product. Who needs Polaroid instant prints now that we have digital and can make a print with our computers.

[Kortpeel (imported)]

Is digital as good as they say?

Moi

Probably not. The main reason for tapes and CDs was the cost of vinyl for the record producers. They got us all on digital and then moan because it's so easy to copy.

A guy I know went to a lot of trouble and expense to build a valve (vacuum tube) amplifier. I recently heard an old LP on it (South Pacific, mono) and then heard the same songs on a CD. The valve amplfier/vinyl was distinctly better quality. So much for progress.

[Batman (imported)]

Probably not. The main reason for tapes and CDs was the cost of vinyl for the record producers. They got us all on digital and then moan because it's so easy to copy.

A guy I know went to a lot of trouble and expense to build a valve (vacuum tube) amplifier. I recently heard an old LP on it (South Pacific, mono) and then heard the same songs on a CD. The valve amplfier/vinyl was distinctly better quality. So much for progress.

I think the earlier CD's sounded like crap because they didn't know what to do to prepare the music for the new format. So in many cases they original LP's do sound better. Once companies learned how to properly remaster albums I think the sound quality is better than comparable analog recording. I know thre are plenty of things I can hear on CD's and DVD-Audio (DTS) that I was never able to hear before.

Of course the big rip-pff is having to buy the same CD 2 or 3 times to get the best sounding one.

[moi621 (imported)]

What I notice is the old technicolor movies are still especially vibrant although I am sure they have been converted to digital recordings to play on TCM.

Somehow the movies made with film and later transferred to digital have not lost their technicolor luster as the vinyl audio counterparts.

We would be better off if the original recording were made with technicolor film and vinyl records to be later transferred to other recording systems. That way the original would be tops!

Hasn't Kodak stopped producing and processing Technicolor due to the digital revolution?

Moi

[Riverwind (imported)]

I believe that is true, at least for most film.

River

[transward (imported)]

Hasn't Kodak stopped producing and processing Technicolor due to the digital revolution?

Moi

Technicolor was never an Eastman Kodak system. I believe you are thinking of Kodachrome. Technicolor dropped out of fashion before the advent of the digital age.

Transward

[Dave (imported)]

When you are talking about music (As in symphonic music, full orchestra etc...) the digital recordings are better because of the sampling rates. They can actually capture the full dynamic range of the live orchestra. Or if you listen to Saint Saen's Organ Symphony, or Barber or Sowerby...

Now what this means is that if you are listening to a live performance of COPLAND's Fanfare for the Common Man, then you do actually hear the awesomely low 16 cycle tones of the pipe organ and the tiny very high, high notes of the cymbals crashing and the flute overtones at nearly 20,000 cycles. Digital recording can do that where most tape systems can't.

Reproducing those extremes is another problem. Most speaker systems can't reproduce a note below 64 cycles. Symphony concert halls have to be built special (it's called tuning) to have those bass sounds hit the audience properly.

When Kubrick's 2001, "A Space Odyssey" premiered in 1968, very few theaters had the speaker systems that could handle those highs and lows even if they got them onto the film.

Some theaters got special speakers in 1974 for the disaster film EARTHQUAKE with Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and lots of other stars... The earthquake sounds were simulated in the theater as 16 and 32 cycle tones shaking the theater walls were produced using Altec Lansing A-1 speakers. Huge fracking 4ft by 4ft by 8 ft speakers with two foot woofers. Talk about penis envy with speakers.

Today, you can buy tiny, digital earphones that produce every sound from 16 cycles to 20,000 cycles and listen to the digital recording that has all the music on it.

No vinyl record can do that with such ease. The digital systems are better.

And chances are that if you are old like me, you won't hear the highs anymore and if you are young like teens, you've already destroyed your ears with loud, obnoxious rap and rock music.

[Sweetpickle (imported)]

digital is all about how little you can use to get there.

It's all about bits.

A 640 x 480 pic with 256 colors gets the idea across but a good analog color pic probably has at least 10 times as much resolution and 100 times as many colors.

You can get recognizable voice with an 8 bit converter and 5000 samples/sec but that vinyl record has much much more information/ sound quality.

digital isn't about high quality it's about efficiency of distribution.

[tugon (imported)]

One of the benefits of analog is the faster response of the phono cartridge over the processing bits of a cd player. The micro and macro dynamics respond faster. Vinyl is more apt to reveal the ambiance of the recording venue. An early recording of Thus Spake Zarathustra on London Recordings featured the 16 hz organ pedal tone.

My home speakers are good to 40 cycles are as we currently say 40 hz. As many of us say vinyl rules and digital sucks. Cd's were brought out to be a medium fidelity storage to replace cassette. Many manufacturers are stopping the production of cd players in favor of streaming music to large disc music storage system while vinyl is continuing to rise in popularity.